RX-8 a good car to learn manual?
 

Hi guys, I'm new.

I want to learn how to drive manual this summer and I heard some good stuff about the RX-8. If I were to buy one, I would definitely buy a used.

I was wondering if this is a good car to learn how to drive manual. If not, what car would you recommend? Thanks.

learn on a old honda or something old, i learned on a miata before driving my 8. I'm too afraid to mess up a beautiful car like the 8. But i would just recommend learning on an old beater.

I learned stick on mine. It will only take you a few days to get the hang of. It's also forgiving, you might semi-stall but then the car can go back into neutral quickly. Start by learning how to drive around in the neighborhood or a parking lot, then when you feel confident, try driving on the streets and try not to stall at lights :o:

i agree with this as well! Don't go out on the main street right away, its just embarassing!

k thanks for your replies. I'm still open for other suggestions as well.

Also, one question. I've searched through the forums and read the snow tires are entirely necessary for snowy climates which is bad news since I live in New England. I'm just wondering, if the road was already plowed and sprayed with sand, will I still need the snow tires?

The rx8 has a very light clutch and smooth shifter, even though there is not a lot of torque at launch it is still an easy car to get off. Do like the others said and practice in a parking lot. Other than that, if someone you know has a pickup truck with a manual that would be even easier because of the greater torque and different gearing.

Would recommand it, even just on cold weather the stock tires aren't much help till they warm up. If not snow tires then least some all seasons will help on plowed roads. Ultimate best bet is to get some beater car for such weather.

And the 8 is a fantastic car to learn stick on, the clutch and shifter are very easy to use. Was 10 years since the last time I drove a stick and in a day of playing in a parking lot got use to a stick again. Just take 1 step at a time, learn to engage it, shift through the gears, then after awhile start playing with downshifting, rev matching etc.

Yes, you will need snow tires, because you get patches of black ice, and also, some times it snows or freezes before or after the snow plow comes, and freezing sleet is killer! - I rather liked studded tires for winter and the studs reduced tread wear as well.

I suggest trying out an 8 stick first and then try the automatic/stick - Stick takes a little work but if you think of the clutch as sort of a like a break, it can help. The automatic sticks are very user friendly! An old stick '04 can be "interesting" even if you have been driving stick all your life! The 05 has fewer hang ups - you might want to wait and get a "new" 05 - after the 06's come out - one that has been sitting on the lot, because you have the advantage of a good long warrenty, and a lower price. Also many people sell their car because there is something wrong with it, and their dealer has not been able to satisfy them with or because Barby Bunny bought it because it looked cute but then discovered you need to have a little bit of engineering to deal with it. 04s had some flaws because this was a newly issued car and it needed a little crafting. Early 05s also had some recall issues, an 05, after August is a peice of art, and they say that the 06s will be faster because of an improved transmission. Also check with your dealer, and credit unions for Bank Repos - sometimes you can get a car for just the price that was still owed and it will still have warrenty left on it. Also, this car is sort of like a truck or an old heavy BMW - they don't like cold weather to start up in - so if you don't have a heated garage you might consider a different engine - try a get in touch with some of the people in Clubs in your area and Canada and get cold weather tips from them.

Yeah why not :dunno:

Rent a manual U Haul truck. You can stall and grind all you want and if you learn to drive it you can drive any stick with ease.

the 8's very easy to learn stick with.

I learned to drive stick on my 8 and had it down within 3 days. And definitely avoid the streets at first cause otherwise the people will be beaping away when you stall.

That can't be a good way to break in an 8. It would have been fun to ride shotgun for those 3 days!

buy snow tires. dont think twice, just get em.

learn on somebody elses car like bunnygirls, then you can go drive yours with confidence

If you buy a used car, check the tires. The original tires (Bridgestone Potenza or Dunlop SP Sport) are summer performance tires that are useless, even dangerous, in ice and snow. It's not just the tread pattern, but the formulation of the tire compound. In summer they're soft and sticky, but in winter they're stiff and slick. Do NOT attempt to use them in the winter.

On the other hand, if the car you buy has had its original tires replaced with all-season tires, you'll do okay in snow, but your summertime handling will suffer.

I second the motion on trying a truck first - might try an older Ford truck - I noticed a lot of similarities in the feel of the '04, and some Ford engineering may have made a contribution to the design - any one know for sure?

:patriot:

i would also recommend learning on a different car, i already new how to drive a stick from my 240sx but found it a big difference compared to the 8

MY girlfriend hated being shotgun those 3 days...she said she had a constant headache from all the jolting back and forth...hehe.

i learned on the 8. took about 3 hours to get the basics down. make sure u have an empty lot or a lot of space though. after learning on the 8, i found some other cars like the scion tc to be real easy.

I'd say easy besides the fact that the rpm's seem to drop relatively fast (when compared to my friend's subby). Heh, and for the first few weeks if your friend's mock you about being a "shitty driver" as mine did to me, ignore them - your the one with the 8!

have fun burning the clutch and grinding the gears.... and stalling...

i would not recommend using a sports car to learn how to drive a stick.

I learned manual on a honda civic then when i got my rx8 i found that the clutch was so much different. If you understand the concept of shifting then you could probably learn on the 8, just realize that its clutch is like no other clutch out there

I learned on my 8 and it took just a few hours in a school parking lot. It had hills and everything i needed to get the hang of it. The 8 is an easy car to drive. As long as you have an idea of what you are doing and be careful and know what not to do, then you will be fine. Maybe a little more clutch wear but big deal, a clutch is cheaper then buying a crap car to learn on.

i learned on my friends 84 bmw i could let the clutch go all the way and it would go on its own without gas so it was very easy to get down the taking off without staling especially since i learned in LA traffic on a friday at 4pm when i started driving my 8 the clutch is alot more sensitive but only took me a couple times to really get used to it.

i learned on an 83 VW scirrocco. its a lot different but im glad i didnt make all the bad mistakes in my 8. but really, im sure the rx-8 can take it. it seems quite forgiving when youre about to stall but the engine hasnt shut off yet.

better than learning how to drive a manual with an evo8... boy was that a disaster lol...

Just get the MT... It's a better engine and drivetrain. If you burn up the clutch a little bit for the first couple days who cares. It will still last you 50,000 plus miles. And that way you won't have buyers remorse having an AT.

thanks for the numerous replies..

My main concerns are probably the tires because I can't really afford to dish out more money on snow tires. Also, I don't really want a 2 seater coupe because I want to be able to drive other people around.

So I was wondering, what about thoughts on the Evo8? It's a sedan and it's AWD so snow won't be that much of a problem? Used prices are probably close to the RX-8

AWD dont mean it can do 95mph in the snow ;) . You still need snow tires

I think it's a pretty easy car to learn manual on, the clutch is very light the gears are short and pretty precise. The only thing is the drive by wire is a bit strange to get used to at first and it's tough to get very smooth 1st to 2nd shifts sometimes.

It's a heck of a lot easier than learning on something like my BMW M3 which required a 100 pound leg press to depress the clutch and arm muscles of the stanford rowing team to row that long throw heavy gear box through the gears.

2 seater coupe? you mean the 4 door 4 seats in an 8 = 2 seater coupe? ive had my friend in the back seat hes close to 6' and ive sat in the back and im 6'1 might not have had the most room but definately doable. but yes in new england having only a sports car is not the best thing in the world i lived in mass for quite a bit of my life if u are worried about the cost of tires and all that dont get a sports car in places it snows ><

^he never said the 8 is a 2 seater coupe

reading what he wrote he said he doesnt wanna worry about the tires and he doesnt want a 2 seater coupe which is why i was wondering if hes still talking about the 8 in that statement. he hasnt really talked about any other car in this thread so i wanna know where that came from

No, he wasn't, but I'm not going to try to convince you about something so frivolous.

no need to convince it was just something i was wondering you say he wasnt i take your word for it no need for arguments on here ill leave that for my gamers forum lol

Haha yea, I post on www.hlfallout.net and there's an argument in pretty much every thread

l2blah is flamefest i love it lol

lime, i read it the same way you did ... i thought he was referring to the 8 as a 2-seater coupe as well

I bought my 6SPD 05 RX8 earlier this year, my first manual but I had driven a few manuals in my time. I learned on my 8 and have had a few issues with shifting but with some practice I have gotten a lot better. I don't stall and my biggest problem was learning to let the clutch out as quicky possible while still shifting smooth. The 8 is not the easiest manual to drive but by no means impossible or difficult to learn on... if you are going to consider the 8, the learning of stick on the car is easily do-able.

I'm surprised as to everyone's opinions about learning to drive a manual transmission with this car. Yes, it shifts easily and the clutch isn't too heavy once broken in, but it's far from the ideal setup for learning.

I learned to drive stick on a 91 Civic ten years ago, and have also spent time in a 93 Jetta and 96 Miata. Compared to these rickety piston-engined cars, the RX-8 gives very little feedback through the clutch pedal, which is why I don't think it's the best setup for learning. When you reach the friction point in a piston-engined car, you get a lot of feedback in the form of vibration from the engine lugging transmitted through the clutch pedal and through the stick. In surprising cases of "efficient energy transmission" in "well-built cars", you may even feel vibrations in the steering wheel (i.e. the Honda Civic). When you're learning, you need to know where this point is to know to feather the clutch pedal or give it more gas.

In the RX-8, you'd be hardpressed to really tell where the friction point is, especially if you were just learning how to drive stick. Sitting at an idle, the RX-8 is softly humming along, making those great Jetson-car puttering noises. The shifter is vibrating like hell, but otherwise there's not much else vibrating in the cabin. Push the clutch in, shift in to gear, and slowly let the clutch out. Do it without putting in enough gas, and the car doesn't buck and shake as much as a piston car. Instead, it simply goes from quiet to really quiet, the dash lights come on, and you wonder what the heck happened before you realize you stalled the car. I think someone learning on an RX-8 would be far more prone to give way too much gas and quickly drop the clutch than someone learning on a different car in order to compensate for the vagueness of the RX-8 clutch pedal and the smoothness of the engine at stall speeds. While this does result in cool axle-hopping wheelspin, this is not good for learning.

Add the vague clutch to the fact that the car is RWD, essentially a mid-engine car with little feedback between "at the limit" and "let's hurl ourselves into that tree", and has enough power and twitchiness on cold or wet tires to teach drivers the true meaning of "lift-throttle oversteer" and "Whee! (also know to passengers as: HOLY CRAP!)" and you really don't have an ideal setup.

However, if you really want an RX-8 (and who doesn't?) just buy one and learn how to drive it. It's not going to be impossible. You'll stall any car when you're learning anyway. Just respect the car and try not to do anything too stupid while you're learning. I don't buy the fact that you can "learn" to drive stick in a week or two. It really is like driving in general: you'll just get better with more seat time, with decreasing but never impossible odds of doing stupid stuff once in awhile.

P.S. - You WILL stall the car in 6th gear when you think you're in reverse. You are not alone.

This is the best part for those of us watching on the sidelines! Consider it hazing before being admitted into "the club" :D: :ylsuper: :mdrmed: